20 Years Of Dining Discoveries

For some reason we are very excited about special menus around town, It started with Dickie Brennan's Summer of Softshells last month, and then it was Restaurant Week, and now COOLinary. We started in on the COOLinary specials on the first day. It was a good excuse to try Brasa Downtown, the new steakhouse in the space vacated by Morton’s. 

Our criteria for a COOLinary was different than most. It was proximity from car to front door. We tried LaBoca first because I liked their menu, but Tom wasn’t feeling it. I made a pact to myself to pass Brasa on Canal at Canal Place, and if we could park in front we would stay. The front door to the elevator to the restaurant was mere steps away from the car. Tom was in.

We had no reservation and the place is huge, so sitting was not a problem. They have done a lot to the space, and it is glamorous. Just like the Brasa on Metairie Road, but different.

We started with the bread service at $12. It was an interesting assortment of breads baked in-house. There was a basic Pain de Mie sliced thin, a baguette that was very in need of more toasting, and two little round loaves about the size of meatballs. These were supposed to have a cheese flavor, but that was lost on me. And there was a large oblong version of a Parker House Roll. This was fluffy and surprisingly sweet. All of these were quite nice.

The appetizers arrived and I began to feel the pinch of the COOLinary limitations. Tom had Yellowfin Tuna Ceviche which he loved. It came with some of the best fried plantains I have encountered. There was also avocado and watermelon in this dish.

The appetizer I chose was Cazuela, a shrimp and coconut soup, which came with salsa on top. This was a really spicy soup that had nothing else notable about it. I got it because that was the choice.

Tom fared better with entrees as well. He got the Gulf Fish A la Plancha, described on the menu as a pan-seared Gulf fish (redfish) almond salsa seca, passion fruit butter, and cauliflower puree. This was crusty with spices and tender, with an explosion of interesting flavors, something Edgar Caro does very well.

At the recommendation of the waiter, I ordered the Lomito, which he described as a Latin version of a filet mignon. On the menu, it is called Teres Major, and the name intrigued me. I was also considering the Hanger Steak, and in hindsight wished I had gotten that. The Lomito came with a Malbec reduction, aligot potatoes, and glazed carrot. 

In an attempt to be adventuresome, I got it medium, which I consider a blush of pink. I asked the waiter for their description of medium, and he indicated that we were on the same page. When it came it was more of a fuschia color. I didn’t want to send it back so I decided to eat the edges and bring the rest home. I found it chewy. The carrot was so large it looked like a sweet potato, and the potatoes were fine.

Tom’s luck held with the third course. He got the flan, which came with strawberry sorbet, macerated strawberries and edible flowers. This was very nice and refreshing.

My Cuajada Con Melao was a cheesecake made with Brazil nuts and panela cheese. It had an odd texture and flavor from dried blood oranges that had the texture of chewy candy. Crumbles of Graham crackers flanked the edges. It was sort of a deconstructed cheesecake. After a bite, I passed it to Tom and he loved it.

The meal at Brasa was fine but I kept wishing I had just ordered from the menu. The bill was $140 and I didn't like it $140 worth. The COOLinary did get us to try the restaurant, but I left thinking that maybe I don’t like the food of Edgar Caro as much as I thought. If I had ordered off the menu I might have liked it better.

I had high expectations for the next COOLinary outing. We went to Trenasse,  a longtime favorite of ours. Tom calls it the “oyster hub of New Orleans” and it is, so we had to have some oysters, going generic with the basic champagne butter version here. 

The lunch COOLinary at Trenasse offered just one choice: Fowl gumbo first and fried catfish over pepper jack grits. We both didn’t need to get the same thing so I got a Taco Salad with grilled shrimp from their Taco Tuesday menu.

The Fowl gumbo is always terrific, and it has won awards. It is made with duck confit and great sausage, and it is threshold spicy. Everything here is threshold spicy, but that is what it is supposed to be. This is the real deal Cajun food, made with the requisite salt, fat, and spice. Delicious!

This catfish COOLinary enteee was no exception. A huge slab of catfish came right out of the fryer and lay atop a big mound of creamy pepper jack grits. The entire dish was ladled on top with crawfish erouffee. After a few bites of this, I found myself wishing I had just ordered double COOLinary. My taco salad with grilled shrimp was excellent, but this was real New Orleans. At $28 I thought this was a nice value.

These special menus are sweeping the city.  The Northshore is doing its own version of this, and so is Metairie/Kenner. When I looked over the list for our side I saw some good ones. One of my faves, Pat’s Rest-A-While, had a menu that was appealing.  Four choices in each of two courses, with a single signature dessert.

We went to Pat’s Rest-A-While to eat the usual things, but seeing the special menu intrigued us. I just did one prix fixe and Tom got chargrilled oysters as an app. 

For his entree, we ordered something from the menu. It was a grilled fish Almondine, though this one was more like the modern Amandine. It had a brown butter sauce and plenty of toasted almonds and lump crabmeat on top, and it was served over buttery green beans.

I had the full menu, and it was a hard choice. Besides the fish, there was Hoisin marinated grilled hanger steak, Airline chicken breast, and fried quail with dirty rice. I never resist dirty rice, and I thought the fried quail was an interesting idea.

Tom always made fun of quail as a bird so tiny it wasn’t really worth it. After this meal, I can vouch for that. It was fun though. The little bird was crispy and golden brown, but Tom’s words rang in my head as I nibbled its tiny wings. What I forgot about quail was that its meat reminds me of duck. I’ve been thinking I really like duck, but what I like is duck confit, which changes its texture. Regular duck (and quail) is not appealing to me at all. I was glad I got it though, because I was always curious about what Tom had said about eating quail. It was fun in a silly sort of way. And the dirty rice was as good as I was expecting.

This was a three-course menu, so I chose seafood gumbo as a starter. It was the only seafood gumbo I’ve ever had that had not a bit of seafood visible in it. There was plenty of okra and plenty of rice, and it was really very tasty. When the waiter inquired how I liked it I congratulated him on the dubious distinction I just mentioned. It wasn’t a complaint but rather a good-natured razzing. I actually loved it, though others might call it salty. (I happen to love that taste, and Tom has always said that Pat Gallagher does ”lusty” food. By that he means he is not shy about using salt and fat and spices, i.e, flavor.) Within minutes another whole cup of gumbo was placed before me, this one with a lot of shrimp.

The single dessert for this menu needed no apologies. It was superb. A Pat Gallagher signature, the Ooey Gooey cake is much emulated, so much so that I’m not really sure where the original was. This was just divine, A yellow cake that was light and incredibly buttery (another Pat Gallagher trademark) it had caramel sauce and chocolate sauce that settled in the crevasses of the cake. I couldn’t believe how good this was. I only eat chocolate desserts, but this could change me. I still only had one bite and gave the rest to Tom. He was thrilled with it, as I expected he’d be.

But the best COOLinary of this week and the best one always is the one offered by The Pelican Club. The Pelican Club has always been one of Tom’s favorite restaurants. Five stars from Day One. They have always been the best COOLinary in town, offering the entire menu to diners instead of limiting choices to two or three things from the menu.

The Pelican Culinary offers three tiers: a $49 tier with three choices, a $59 tier with four choices, and a $69 tier with four choices. Each entree includes any one of the appetizer items from the menu and one dessert choice from the dessert menu. Any of five soups can be added for $8. All this and validated parking make it an incredible deal.

We made it there Wednesday night. Instead of Tom’s usual baked oysters everywhere, we got him the scallops and artichoke, and I got the Vietnamese spring rolls.  There are nine delicious appetizer choices, so we’ll have to go back before it’s over to have some more.

For entrees Tom and I ordered from different categories. He chose the Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb from the $69 entree section, and I selected the Gulf Fish (Black Drum) with crabmeat on top from the $59 group.

There were five different options for dessert. Tom had the Crème Brûlée and I chose the Chocolate Decadence Cake.

We opted to add a soup and we also ordered the bread service, which is a housemade Focaccia. We added these as an afterthought and they arrived after the appetizers.

Tom’s scallops were beautiful, each placed in an artichoke leaf, all surrounding an artichoke bottom. All of this was drizzled with a lemon beurre blanc sauce. There were bits of garlic and peppers dotting it throughout. The leaves that were the base for the scallops were tender enough to eat. The scallops were not oversized, but they were beautifully seared outside. The beurre blanc was perky from lemon and its consistency was rich with a nice mouthfeel. Tom was crazy about this, and the taste I had was terrific.

The Vietnamese spring rolls were such a beautiful presentation I just wanted to savor it as a feast for the eyes. The garnish that engulfed these rolls was so fresh it was a study in green. Each piece of the elongated slice of spring roll was placed inside a leaf of baby Romaine. These were plated in a crescent and covered with jalapēno slices and piles of cilantro and mint. A clear Asian nuoc cham dipping sauce accompanied this. This was so enjoyable I could have made a meal of these little rolls.

The Focaccia arrived somewhere in here, along with the Shrimp Bisque. I have never met a focaccia I liked, even though a lot of places serve it, and all think theirs is the best. I was skeptical even seeing the word on a menu. When it came to the table I was happily surprised. It came in a basket with butter, but this cloud of baked goodness needed nothing. It was light and airy and tall and soft with a dusting of kosher salt on top. It had a nice crumb, no overwhelming taste of rosemary, and no imperfections I could see.

The shrimp bisque was lava-hot, so it took a few minutes to eat it. 

Dense but not too thick, it had a perfect shrimp flavor. This was good enough to make an entire meal with the focaccia.

The entrees were even better. I am not a lamb eater, but Richard’s rack of lamb was so tender and so full of herb flavor and demi richness that I could have eaten this. I always say I need a lamb gateway dish like the ground lamb hummus around town, but this could make me a lamb fan any time. I couldn’t get over how great this was. It was impossibly tender and each bite was encrusted with the herb mixture. It was roasted just so, with a char to the bones. And there were lots of bones because this was a generous portion. Also on the plate was a pile of creamy delicious mashed potatoes and two spears of asparagus. Terrific dish.

I chose a safe entree of Paneed Black Drum with Jalapēno Hollandaise, served with roasted new potatoes and Haricot Verts. This was a very nice piece of fish, topped with a generous mound of big lumps of crabmeat. A light butter Meuniere sauce was underneath, and the spicy Hollandaise gave this dish a bit of a kick. The little potato wedges were roasted to the sweet spot and I love green beans done this way: cooked to perfection with butter coating each piece.

For dessert, Tom’s Crème Brûlée with a smattering of berries was as pleasing to him as always, and my Chocolate Decadence Cake was lovely, dark, and dense with a caramel sauce drizzle, and a puff of whipped cream with a sprig of mint as a garnish.

Richard Hughes brought me a slice of the Coconut Cream pie because he knows how much I love it. This pie is sublime and creamy with a rich coconut taste and the perfect crust.

We left The Pelican Club after a splendid meal and a wonderful evening back in a place that holds so many great memories for us. Because of our current c circumstances, we don’t go to places like The Pelican Club much anymore. It was the COOLinary that brought us back, proving that its premise to get people out in the dog days of summer is a great idea.